Red Star

Before the Fire Part 7

Vienna is a gorgeous city, Ralph thinks as Rosa opens the door to their hotel.

She immediately runs over to the bed and jumps onto it, the sheets billowing around her slender frame. Her laugh carries across the lavish room to Ralph, who smiles and drops the bags promptly on the floor as he moves into the room.

"So," Ralph smirks, jumping onto the bed with her. "There's only one bed..."

"I think we'll manage, Ralph."

They burst into gloriously uncontrollable laughter and Ralph wonders where the Rosa who would shout at him for chewing gum too loud disappeared to.

"Ten minutes jumping on the bed," Rosa says, looking at Ralph severely. "Then we go to the location."

"Rosa," Ralph laughs. "We can take a few days to explore first. This is a vacation too."

"But it's a mission first." Rosa reminds him, moving off the bed and then leaping onto it, causing the sheets to flutter around Ralph, who's still laying on the bed.

He looks up at her; jumping on the mattress, her hair bouncing around her shoulders. The white sheets float around her like wings. She's gorgeous, ethereal. He shouldn't be compelled to her, but he is. By God, he is.

"Rosa." He says softly.

She hums in response.

"Please don't let me fall in love with you." It's feeble and futile. Ralph is pretty sure he's already falling for the brunette bombshell. 

Her jumping ceases. She stops and looks at him, one eyebrow creased upwards in an arch inching towards her hairline. He's seen that look before. It's the one she gets when she's not quite sure what to say.

They look at each other for a while in this way. Until Rosa begins to laugh.

He's never seen her laugh this hard. Or anyone, if he's perfectly honest. She nearly falls over at one point. Something inside of him twists, as if someone is wringing his organs with dirty hands. He tries not to frown in response even though he wants to scream.

So he laughs with her.

"If I knew that would make you speechless, I would have said it on day one!" Ralph jokes, trying to make his laugh sound as realistic as possible and to prevent his voice from cracking.

"I would have liked to see you try," Rosa says as she calms down. "Right, let's go. We have a gang to catch."

Ralph thinks the building the address leads to doesn't really look like the place where illegal activity takes place. It's pretty much a farm on the outskirts of Vienna. Rosa looks over at him, giving him a look that makes him question if this is legit.

"You got your weapons?"

"No," Ralph says. "Of course I don't! You can't get guns and knives like ours across airports!"

In response, Rosa opens her bag and hands him two pistols, a knife, and a pack of bullets.

"Do I even want to ask?"

"Probably not."

They enter the establishment, although that seems a rather grand word for the shabby barn-like building. It's dark, but illuminated by the torches that Ralph and Rosa shine inside.

It is this moment that Ralph realises they've been played.

"Ros-" he manages to get out before she notices a velvet box in the middle of the empty barn.

She moves to it, continually looking around for cameras, someone, something. But there's nothing. They're completely isolated.

Which makes it all the more worse.